


Who Do You Love?

by she_is_strong_with_the_force



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Anakin Skywalker Needs a Hug, Angst, Revenge of the Sith, Why Did I Write This?, a dream sequence basically???, im so sorry, like seriously a lot of it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:08:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25216000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/she_is_strong_with_the_force/pseuds/she_is_strong_with_the_force
Summary: "My god...." A voice murmurred, surprisingly close to Anakin's ear. Obi Wan, he realized, a surge of white hot anger rushing through him. Anakin tried to shuffle away, but he was caught up in his old Master's arms before he could move another inch."Let go of me," Anakin hissed, something like tears stinging at the backs of his eyelids. "I hate you, I--" His voice broke, almost as though the words pained him.Obi Wan made a similar sort of choking sound. "Anakin, my brother. I'm so sorry."Anakin said nothing--Obi Wan was no brother of his. He was a traitor, a thief, and, worst of all, a liar.
Kudos: 28





	Who Do You Love?

**Author's Note:**

> hello there! i wrote this a while back and revised it :D
> 
> This is basically my take on what's going on in Anakin's head between the time that Obi Wan leaves him on Mustafar and Palpatine comes to rescue him and transform him into the Darth Vader we seen in the OT. I kinda thought he'd have a force-induced sort of dream/vision, where he saw the people he loved most in his life (and people who he didn't know yet). So when Anakin sees Obi Wan and talks to him here, Obi Wan isnt really there :( It's kinda all over the place, but i had fun writing it! Sorry if it's confusing xP

**Pain.**

It was all Anakin Skywalker knew, all that he felt, all that he could see. Splotches of deep reds and oranges and yellows burned at the backs of his eyelids as something mind-numbingly painful coursed through his body.

He was burning, he knew--he could see the flames lapping at his long, dark robes, encasing his body, creeping up his arms.

Anakin felt....cold, actually. A sort of frigid, bone chilling cold that ate away at his resolve to keep pushing, to keep grabbing, to keep fighting to live so that he could see Padme again.

He couldn't breathe. Smoke and sulfur and toxic gases clouded the humid air, stifling him, smothering him. His lungs burned with every gulp of air he sucked in, and ached as he breathed out.

"My god...." A voice murmurred, surprisingly close to Anakin's ear. Obi Wan, he realized, a surge of white hot anger rushing through him. Anakin tried to shuffle away, but he was caught up in his old Master's arms before he could move another inch.

"Let go of me," Anakin hissed, something like tears stinging at the backs of his eyelids. "I hate you, I--" His voice broke, almost as though the words pained him.

Obi Wan made a similar sort of choking sound. "Anakin, my brother. I'm so sorry."

Anakin said nothing--Obi Wan was no brother of his. He was a traitor, a thief, and, worst of all, a liar. 

This encounter was all in his head, anyway--the last thing he remembered was blacking out on the lava banks of Mustafar, watching Obi Wan's retreating figure grow smaller, and smaller, and smaller still.

:(

It was all a dream, but it felt **so real.**

"Padawan," he heard Obi Wan croak, that infuriating accent of his laced with a sort of grief Anakin hadn't thought him capable of. "You were my padawan, Anakin, do....do you remember? I taught you all that I knew, and I failed you."

"The only one you have failed," Anakin ground out through gritted teeth, "is yourself."

_That isn't true, the tiniest voice inside Anakin's head whispered, so soft and so short and so very familiar. You've got to remember, Ani._

"I'll miss you, you know. More than I can express." Obi Wan brought Anakin closer, pulling him into what might've passed as a hug anywhere else. "There are so many people who will, and Palpatine is not one of them. Think of those you love, my padawan, even if I am not among them."

 _Who do you love?_ the little voice asked, now nothing more than a breathy whisper. Everything was getting darker.

He saw Padme first--clad in that beautiful dress that mirrored the sunset on Naboo, her long, dark hair done up into several intricate knots at the base of her head. She was smiling at him--that radiant, beautiful smile--just the way she had when she'd told him she was pregnant.

"Padme," Anakin murmurred, reaching up a hand he didn't have to cup a face that wasn't there. "My love..."

Next, he saw a Togruta girl, dual lightsaber blades clutched between each fist. Her blue eyes shone with the sort of youth and light and love that Anakin himself had never known. She was laughing at something faraway, something that he couldn't see, and it brought the faintest of smiles to his lips.

"Snips?" Anakin tried to sit up, tried to reach out for his padawan. Ahsoka Tano turned to face him after a moment, her elated expression fading fast.

She looked horrified. Ahsoka stumbled back, raising her blades and shifting into a defensive stance.

"No, Snips, _please wait--"_

She was gone before he could finish the sentence, vanished into a sea of swirling red and yellow and orange.

Before his eyes, that fiery swirl of color coalesced into a breathtakingly beautiful binary sunset. The twin suns of his home planet, Tatooine, shined down on Anakin--he could practically feel the gentle heat on his face, the swirl of a summer's breeze through his hair, the grainy sensation of white sand between his toes. 

A teenage boy stood atop one of the sand dunes, staring contemplatively at the same, stunning array of colors that had enraptured Anakin as a child. There was something so inescapably familiar about the boy, despite the fact that Anakin was sure he'd never seen him in his life.

The young boy turned, allowing Anakin a better view of his face. His features, not yet marred by his home planet's relentless suns, were soft and smooth and youthful, and his eyes--

They were **Anakin's** eyes.

Much to Anakin's surprise, instead of recoiling in terror or disgust upon seeing him, the boy.... **smiled.**

"I **know** there's good in you," the boy said, extending a hand to him. The intimacy of the gesture wasn't lost on Anakin--he'd never met this person before, and yet....he felt as though he'd spent a thousand suns by his side. "It's not too late, and it never will be. Because I forgive you--"

"--because I can **never** forgive you!"

Just as soon as the boy had appeared, he was gone, and in his place, stood a seething, dark haired young woman. She looked about the same age as the boy from Tatooine--a similar curve to her jaw, a familiar set to her shoulders. Her hair had been meticulously styled into a pile of braids atop her head, and the dress she wore, a deep, rich, royal blue, dripped with opulence and wealth. 

She looked like a Princess.

There were tears in her eyes, her delicate, all-too-familiar features contorted in unmistakeable rage. 

"You took my true parents from me. And, and--you almost had **him** killed. At Jabba's, you let them take him from me, you left him there to **die** \--"

Anakin tried to open his mouth, to speak, to apologize for something he didn't know he'd done, to console this mystery girl that he felt an inexplicable connection with--but nothing came out.

Words unspoken scratched at his throat, clawed at his conscience. What had he **done** to her? 

_Forgive me, please,_ he wanted to say. _I don't know what I did to hurt you, but I can't bear for you to be angry with me._

In an instant, the woman was gone, replaced with his old Master's tearstained face. The transition wasn't nearly as jarring as it should've been; Anakin should've lunged at Obi Wan, should've killed him for daring to rip him away from the people he loved. 

He did nothing.

"I'm so sorry." Obi Wan's voice broke as he began to shift away from Anakin, lowering his head back onto the ground as gently as he could manage. "Anakin, I can't--I can't do it, I....."

 _I can't kill you,_ he was going to say. _I'm not brave enough to finish the job._

"I'll miss you, Little Ani." Obi Wan's use of his childhood nickname should have infuriated Anakin, but, instead, it comforted him. Obi Wan made to get up, and Anakin had to keep himself from crying out.

 _Don't go! Please, don't leave me, Master, please!_ the little voice in his head pleaded with him to scream. _Don't let go, please, don't leave me here, I'm sorry, please! I know this is all in my head, but you can't leave me--_

The hiss of a hydraulic press brought Anakin back to his senses--he was being lifted up, up, up, until his body finally stabilized in a vertical position. His vision was tinted, his hands and feet bound to whatever contraption had lifted him up. His breathing came hard and labored, rhythmic huffs and puffs of air escaping the vocoder of his new helmet. 

Everyone was gone.

\--------

"Lord Vader," asked a voice that crackled like electricity itself, "can you hear me?"


End file.
